CHRISTIAN TOOLBOX BASICS
Let me see the hands of everyone who has a toolbox.
(interview people “What do you have in your toolbox?” - (next person) “Do you have anything different in your toolbox?” “Why do you have a toolbox?” “What would your life be like without your tools?”)
I like to think that every Christian is born again with a spiritual toolbox. In your Christian toolbox are some basic tools. We all need to become experts in using these tools if we want to become mature Christians.
Scripture reading is one of the basic tools in the Christian toolbox. Last week many of us committed to reading the Bible through in one year. How many of you read your Bible faithfully this week?
There are many tools in the Christian toolbox … some examples are: fasting, prayer, witnessing, spiritual gifts, giving and serving, amoung others.
Today, we are going to focus on prayer.
Listen, revival is possible anywhere people dedicate themselves to prayer.
Revival isn’t free – it will cost us something – the price of revival is the sacrifice of your time, talent and resources.
You’ve already started down the path to revival by committing to reading God’s Word on a regular systematic basis, and that requires a commitment of time.
Today I am going to ask you to commit to setting aside time each day to dedicate to prayer.
When you boil it down to it’s basics, prayer is simply communication with God. Prayer is a conversation between you and God. He talks – you listen …. You talk – He listens.
God desires to communicate with us even more than we desire to communicate with Him. He knows each one of us intimately and he will speak to us according to our spiritual level of maturity.
Our problem is that most of us do all the talking and don’t take time to listen. Our prayers go something like this, “Helo God, It’s me again. I’m going to buy a new pick-up … unless you have an objection … and oh, I’m going to need you to help me pay for it. Alright God, talk to you later …bye”
Christians need to learn to listen to God.
I suggest that you try this – when you pray, keep a pencil and paper handy. Write the date at the top of the paper and then say to God, “God, what are you saying today?” Then listen and write down what you hear. You will be amazed at what God tells you.
But how do you know you are really hearing from God?
Well, you need to test what you hear by God’s holy Word – the Bible. You will never hear something that is contrary to God’s Word.
Also in most instances it will be verrified by other means. For example, another respected Christian may say something to you like, “The Lord laid it on my heart to pray for an increase in your finances – does that make sense to you?” (Makes sense to me brother – keep praying!)
The Holy Spirit is able to lead us into a sensitivity whereby we are able to test what we hear from God. The more you abide in Him the easier it will be to tell the counterfit from the real. Just like the bank teller can tell a real $100 dollar bill from a counterfeit because he handles the real bills so often, so also we will be able to clearly discern the voice of God.
John 10:1 Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.
2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.
3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice."
All great men and women of the Bible communicated with God. They learned to hear the shepherds voice. God communicated with them in many different ways. Some examples of how God communicated with them are an audible voice, angels, the still small voice, dreams, visions, through signs and wonders, circumstances and prophets.
One time God even used a donkey to get a message across to Balam. So if He can use a donkey, he can certainly use you and me.
Prayer is one of the greatest tools you have in your Christian toolbox!
Listen, nothing you can do will benefit you more than prayer!
Through prayer, you will benefit spiritually, mentally and physically.
Alright, since prayer is so important to us, here are some questions we need to be asking about prayer.
1. When should I pray?
2. How long should I pray?
3. What do I pray about?
4. How do I pray?
5. Where do I pray?
Let me answer these five questions one at a time.
First, “When should I pray?”
The best time to pray is when you don’t feel like it, even when God seems far away. Psalm 10:1 says, “Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” ….then in verse 17 it says, “You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry…”
When should I pray? When I find myself in trouble. James 5:13 says, “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray.”
When should I pray? When I find myself under stress. Psalm 62:5 says, “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.”
When should I pray? In times of emergency and panic. Daniel 2:16-18 says, “At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him. Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.”
When should I pray? Together with my other Christian brothers and sisters. When the early church was praying to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1:14 says, “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
Corporate prayer is powerful. Pastor Cho – pastor of the largest church in the world says, “As we (the church gathered) pray together, the power of God is manifested in our midst. Many have been healed, delivered, and filled with the Holy Spirit as we have united in prayer. If one can put a thousand to flight and two can handle ten thousand, can you imagine hundreds of thousands united in prayer – the power is beyond comprehension!”
When should I pray? When I am tempted. Jesus said in Matthew 26:40-41 "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
When should I pray? When I get discouraged. In 1 Samuel 1:10 it says, “In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD.” She was discouraged because she could not have children. But God heard her prayer and answered her by giving her a son – the son’s name – Samuel, one of the greatest prophets in the Bible.
When should I pray? Before I make important decisions. Just before Jesus chose his twelve disciples Luke 6:12 records, “… Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”
When should I pray? Before we attempt evangelism. Luke 10:2 records, “He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
When should I pray? Pray before you come to church. Pastor Cho says, “More can be accomplished if each person comes to church in an attitude of prayer and quietly prays before the service. This is why the holy and mighty presence of God is in our services. Sinners are convicted by the Holy Spirit even before I get up to preach the gospel.”
But pastor, I’m so busy, when will I ever find time to pray?
Listen to what Pastor Cho says, “…in Korea, our prayer time begins at 5:00 A.M. We regularly pray for one or two hours. After our prayer time, we begin the normal routines of our day. Since the most important thing in our lives is prayer, we have learned to retire early. On Fridays, we spend the entire night in prayer.”
Here is a challenge. This week record how many hours you spend in front of your television set and compare it to how much time you spend in prayer.
Keep track of how many hours you spend on your favorite hobby and compare it to how much time you spend in prayer.
Keep track of how much time you spend on your computer this week and compare to how much time you spend in prayer.
Listen, I don’t want to hear any complaints about not having enough time to pray. You make time for what is important to you.
Daniel disciplined himself to pray. In Daniel 6:10 it says, “Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.”
The Muslims who are going to Hell because they believe in a false god, find time to bow towards Mecca and pray three times a day.
If you are not making time for prayer, you’re telling God that spending time communicating with him is not important to you. You wouldn’t miss your favorite soap operas, but you just don’t have time to pray. You wouldn’t miss that all important game, but you just don’t have time to pray.
That leads us to the second question, “How long should I pray?”:
The short answer is until your done. I do my best to pray an hour to an hour and a half every day and then I pray all through the rest of the day as I go about my business. The Lord and I have an ongoing conversation. Sometimes I pray in the Spirit, sometimes I sing in the Spirit, sometimes I just praise the Lord, but I try to remain very near to the Lord at all times – for me He is present at all times.
Oh Lord, help us to develop and cultivate a sense of your presence in our lives. Grant us a fresh awareness of your Holy presence Jesus. 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Help us to walk in the knowledge that you are always present with us.
Many prayers are not answered the same day, week or month or year we pray them. Does that mean we give up praying about those things? Absolutely not! We should continue day after day to pray for the same things until we get an answer. In Luke18:1-8 Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ’Grant me justice against my adversary.’ "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ’Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ "And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
I highly recommend you carve one hour a day out of your schedule and dedicate it to prayer. It will be the best hour you spend all day – I guarantee it!
But if you have never disciplined yourself to pray before, I recommend you start with 15 minutes and work your way up to an hour of prayer.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:14 the Apostle Paul exhorts us to “pray continually;” How do I do that? Well, when you are finished with your hour of prayer, then train yourself to remain in the presence of Jesus. Pray often throughout the day, keep yourself aware of His Holy presence. Pray in your prayer language – that is in the Holy Spirit. In this way you will always be in a state of constant prayer. That is how you can pray continually. When you reach this level of prayer you will begin to see marvelous things begin to happen. You will see God begin to move in mighty ways in your life and the lives of the people around you. You will begin to have Divine appointments all day long. God will use you in supernatural ways that you would have never before dreamed to be possible.
How many of you have heard the saying, “He’s so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good?” Let me see your hands.
Listen, I’m here to tell you that saying is a lie from the Devil himself.
After spending hours of time on his knees in prayer Charles Finney would walk into a factory and just look at people and they would fall under the conviction of sin and repent without him saying a word. When he would be riding on a train passing by a town people in the taverns would begin to weep and fall under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Listen, God is bringing that kind of power here to this church.
We’ve got to pay the price – we’ve got to repent of our laziness
We’ve got to repent of our laxidasical attitude toward prayer.
We’ve got to take back the ground the enemy has taken from us, and the only way to do that is by disciplined prayer!
There is no easy way, there is no shortcut.
You wonder why the American church is weak?
You wonder why America is wallowing in the gutter of depravity?
You wonder why our neighborhoods are falling prey to drugs and violence?
You wonder why our family members have fallen away from serving God?
It’s because we are a Nation of spiritual whimps!
We’ve sold our birthright for a superbowl tee-shirt and the soap-opera digest.
We’re playing church instead of being the church.
Our churches are powerless because we’ve become gospel consumers instead of kingdom producers.
We’re going through the motions living on past revivals, past experiences, past moves of God.
Listen, Church, God want’s to do a sovergin work here and we’ve got to join His team. We’ve got to get on board what God is doing and begin to practice disciplined prayer. (Can I get a witness?)
The third question is a practical one and addresses the issue, “What do I pray about?”
This is an important question because I’ve heard people say, “Man, I prayed for everybody and everything I could think of and only 10 minutes have past, how am I possibly going to pray for a whole hour?”
The answer is as practical as the question – make yourself a prayer checklist.
When I flew as a Navigator on KC-135 tankers, I was required to use a checklist. From take-off to landing every critical operation was on the checklist. Even simple and obvious things like “check to be sure your wheels are down before you land” were on the checklist. I used to get surprise check-rides which meant that at any time my crew showed up to fly at O’dark thirty there could be an inspector from Standards and Evaluations there to fly with us. And if we failed to use our checklist, we would flunk and be removed from flying status. Then you would find yourself standing in front of the Old Man (Commanding Officer) and trust me, that is the last place you want to be. Anyway, checklists are very important and useful and in the flying business, they can save your life.
Jesus gave His disciples a checklist in the form of the Lord’s prayer. In fact I use the Lord’s prayer to begin my prayer checklist every day.
(Hold up your prayer checklist and go through it)
When you develop your own prayer checklist, you’ll have no trouble praying for an hour.
I’ve provided a prayer checklist guide as a bulletin insert to give you some ideas when you develop your own prayer checklist.
The forth question, is, “How do I pray?”:
How do I pray? I can pray sitting down, standing up, walking around, laying prostrate face down, on your knees, with hands lifted up, with your eyes opened or closed, head bowed or looking up. There are many prayer postures – use them all.
How do I pray? I pray in tongues through the power of the Holy Spirit:
1 Cor 14:14 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.
Eph 6:18:14 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Jude 1:14 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
How do I pray? I pray fervently: Romans 8: In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
How do I pray? I Meditate on the Word and pray using scripture.
For instance, I pray Collosians 1 for you every day. (Read them the example)
And finally the question, “Where do I pray?”
Where do I pray? I pray alone in your prayer closet. Mt. 14:23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
In Matthew 6 Jesus says, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Where do I pray? I pray publicly and pray as a group.
1 Tim 2:8 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.
Philpians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
We are increasingly going to become a praying church. I need four of five Christians who want to learn how to become prayer warriors. Intersessors who will stand in the gap with me as we begin to assault the powers of darkness here in Klamath Falls and mightly petition the Lord in behalf of this community. If you think God is calling you to this kind of ministry, let me know sometime this week.
Now church, listen how the early church prayed in Acts 4.
(The background is when Peter and John were on trial for healing the lame man at the Temple.)
18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.
20 For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
21 After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened.
22 For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: "’Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
God wants to shake Klamath Falls by the power of the Gospel.
What I want to know and what God wants to know is are yougoing to be a player in God’s Kingdom or are you going to be a benched Christian.
Are you willing to pay the price? Are you willing to pray the price?
I want you to think about that for a minute while I give an altar call for salvation.
Altar Call: Please bow your heads while I give the invitation.
If you were to die today are you sure you would you go to Heaven?
Listen, the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart right now – answer His call.
You say, “Pastor, how can I know for sure I’ll go to heaven?”
You can know for sure because Jesus himself said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
Today is the day, now is the time,
If you want to know for sure that you are born again, then hold up your hand so I can see it.
(Wait)…………. Anyone else
I want you to pray this prayer along with me.
O God, I recognize that I am a sinner,
that I stand in peril of suffering eternity in hell.
Please forgive me of my sins.
Jesus, come into my heart and be Lord of my life.
I renounce my old way of life and now confess you as my Lord and savior.
Thank you for loving me and dying on the cross for me.
Holy Spirit, please lead and direct my life from now on. Amen
Now saints, I want everyone who is willing to give a minimum of 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week to prayer to come forward so I can pray a prayer of dedication over you.
“Holy Spirit make the presence of Christ real to us! Give us a new understanding of Your Word. Bring us into a new walk of fellowship in the Holy Spirit!”
